An independent investigation was "unable to determine" if Northam was in a racist photograph that was printed on his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page. Northam insists he is neither the man in blackface depicted in the photo, nor the one in the KKK hood. He has admitted to wearing blackface while competing in a dance contest as a faux Michael Jackson.

Cuomo said he wasn't surprised by the outcome of the investigation, since "institutions look to protect themselves."

But then he spoke about an "ugly truth" to the media's role in covering Northam's controversy and others among top state officials.

"If you hold on to your guns, and you wait, there is a good chance that if the media can’t make it happen soon, they will go away," Cuomo told his CNN colleague Anderson Cooper. "And the reason I was OK with it moving on at the time was there is sometimes too much of a frenzy in the media for finality, to make things happen. And that is not always fair in the moment. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.

"I always believe it is better for the voters to decide who should be in what offices, not the media and their opponents pushing them out."